Panic in the streets of Quito…

One of the most famed anecdotes related to Halloween occurred on October 30, 1938 when an Orson Welles-directed national radio broadcast of “The War of the Worlds” caused panic and anger the U.S. Almost eleven years after that broadcast, however, another radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’ novel in Ecuador led to more dire consequences.

The lesser-known incident occurred in 1949 when the drama director at Radio Quito worked out a deal allowing his station to remake a 1944 Chilean radio version of “The War of the Worlds”. Though that transmission led to “panic when it was broadcast in Santiago, Chile” Leonardo Páez went ahead with the script. Thus, on February 12, 1949 listeners to Radio Quito were interrupted from an evening of music and told that Martians landed 20 miles outside the capital city. Páez acted as a reporter and claimed that the aliens overran a military base and were on their way to Quito.

Predictably, word of mouth spread over the spoof alien landing and panicked citizens took to the streets. Quito’s mayor was fooled and called on people to “defend our city” while priests tended to flocks of repentant parishioners. Some didn’t believe that aliens had landed but instead blamed neighboring Peru who had been involved in previous border disputes.

Eventually, Radio Quito staff were informed of the panic and publicly admitted to the hoax. Mass fear quickly changed into collective anger as all hell would break loose:

El Comercio, the largest and most respected paper in the country, owned radio Quito and the station was housed in the same building as the newspaper. It was to this location that the mob advanced, and in what might have seemed an ironic act by the crowd, set fire to copies of the El Comercio newspaper and hurled these (and other objects) at the building. The main entrance was blocked and a fire swiftly broke out. Some of the besieged staff of 100 people escaped from a rear exit, but many were trapped on upper floors and were forced in some desperate cases to leap from windows. Others attempted to form human chains to the ground, but many fell. The reported figures for the eventual death toll varies between about 6 and 20, with the former considered the more realistic number, but regardless of the how many died or were injured, it was a clearly a terrifying night with some despicable acts reported.

Páez and twenty other were arrested in the days after the broadcast though Páez would be eventually exonerated. Since then, Páez’ motives for the hoax have been questioned with some arguing that he diabolically planned to create widespread panic though his daughter claimed that he merely wanted “some good reviews in the papers the following day.”

Leonardo Páez was no Orson Welles but there is no doubt that Radio Quito’s 1949 “War of the Worlds” broadcast led to greater fear, rage, and violence.

Image – BBC News
Online Sources- YouTube, Museum of Hoaxes, War of the Worlds Invasion